How to Teach a Blue Dog Red Tricks

(CORRECTION, 8/25/08: The original posting of this story said that Genworth is a subsidiary of General Electric. The text below has been corrected to reflect that Genworth Financial has not been a subsidiary since 2005.)

There is an emboldened breed of politician strutting around Denver this week and tonight, as part of the Democratic Party’s convention, multiple corporations will be throwing a late-night bash in honor of these creatures. A group of fiscally conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dog Coalition has been able to leverage centrist appeal and an increasing Democratic majority into strong gains in the House of Representatives. When the group formed 13 years ago, the Republican Party held a congressional majority and the Blue Dogs were clawing to hold on to their seats. Today, this group of moderates holds 47 seats in the House. The group’s unique appeal is evidenced in the Blue Dogs’ formidable fundraising coalition.

The Blue Dogs’ fundraising advantage has been in their ability to capture pro-business interest groups that usually swing Republican, while simultaneously receiving money from left-leaning ideological groups. So far in the 2008 election cycle the Blue Dog PAC has raised $2.3 million from individuals and corporate and union political action committees, anchored by health care ($455,800) and finance ($440,500), two sectors that traditionally have leaned right. The finance sector includes business interests such as banking, investments and real estate. The Blue Dogs’ appeal to business interests also contributes to their gains in health care, where their PAC is strongly supported by the PACs of pharmaceutical companies ($144,500). The PAC also benefits from being members of the party that has declared health care a priority in this election cycle. As such, contributions from doctors’ PACs make up about $201,000 of the PAC’s total receipts. The Blue Dogs pulled another major fundraising coup in wooing the agriculture sector. Since 2000, agribusiness money has broken almost 3 to 1 in favor of Republicans. Despite this, close to $150,500 of the Blue Dog PAC’s receipts come from America’s farmers’ PACs.

The atypical fundraising habits of the PAC also translate into big money for the Blue Dogs’ individual congressional campaigns. For their 2008 re-election, the Blue Dogs have raised about $7.5 million, $3.8 million, and $3.7 million, respectively, from the finance, health care and agribusiness sectors. Interestingly though, traditional left-leaning interest groups only give moderate amounts to the Blue Dog PAC but are then willing to contribute more generously to the members’ individual campaigns. Lawyers tend to give to Democrats over Republicans at a rate of 3 to 1, while lobbyists tend to give at an even rate. However lawyers and lobbyists have given a relatively small amount ($71,960) to the Blue Dog PAC. In contrast, individual Blue Dogs have received a total of $4.9 million from lawyers. The same phenomenon occurs with labor unions. At the national level, the Blue Dog PAC makes a small amount of its funds from unions ($58,000). However, unions donate almost exclusively to Democrats and have given the individual congressional campaigns $5.7 million.

The Blue Dogs’ bipartisan appeal has also translated into big Democratic wins in traditional Republican strongholds. The coalition’s website advertises that since 1996 the group has ousted 24 Republican incumbents. Of the 47 current Blue Dog Democrats, 24 represent red states, 12 represent purple states and only 11 represent blue states. Blue Dogs can be found in Tennessee, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arizona, North Carolina, Kansas, North Dakota, North Carolina, Indiana, South Dakota, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana, Utah and Texas.

Tonight’s “Blue Night in Denver” event to celebrate the Blue Dogs is being co-sponsored by AT&T and Genworth Financial–two companies whose campaign contributions have historically leaned Republican. AT&T, the second-biggest political donor of all time, has given 56 percent of its PAC and employee contributions to the GOP since the 1990 election, while Genworth has sent 58 percent of its contributions to Republicans.

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